Web Glossary
Accessibility - Accessibility refers to a visitor's ability to consume content and complete tasks on a website whether they use an older or newer computer, a screen reader, a mobile device or any other technology. It is primarily focused on people with disabilities, such as blindness or color blindness.
Analytics - Analytics or web analytics is the study of the behavior of website visitors, typically traffic reports or user performance data.
Business Analysis - When you look at your website from a business perspective and define goals that shape what content and features you need on your website.
Content - Anything on your webpage that is not navigation or a fixed header image; i.e. all the elements that you can change. This can include text, images, downloadable documents, links, etc.
Content Management System (CMS) - Software that manages the administration & presentation of your content. At OHSU, we use CommonSpot as our CMS.
Information Architecture (IA) - Representation of the type of information on each page of your site. Information Architecture includes the site map as well as wireframes.
Keywords - Words or phrases that describe your web content, or that someone would use to find your website. As more and more of human knowledge is digitized and therefore 'searchable,' the ability to create relevant keywords leads directly to critically important information, and gets information to the right audience. The more specific the keyword, the more valuable.
Messaging - the application of a business plan to how you communicate. In the case of the web, you look at what content you put on your website and how it leads visitors to take specific action.
Metadata - At its simplest, metadata is data about data. The information is used to categorize, contextualize or describe the information on your page. This serves a similar function to keywords and is a key component in helping users find your site.
Metrics - Related to analytics, metrics are the data you use to measure the performance of your website. It can include traffic reports as well as time-to-load for pages and other measures.
Page Inventory - A table or spreadsheet showing the discrete areas of content on each page of your site, arranged according to the navigation on the site.
Quality Assurance (QA) - The planned and systematic testing of a website to assure that it passes the minumum standards for quality.
Readability - the ease with which someone can read or consume text content.
Search Engine - An information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information which must be consulted.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website through a variety of practices, including using keywords, writing friendly code and having an effective cross-linking strategy.
Shortcut - A user-friendly URL used to create shorter addresses that are easy to remember for people to type into the browser. For example, the URL http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/services/technology/webstrategies/ has the shortcut www.ohsu.edu/webstrategies.
Site Map - A graphical representation showing what pages you have in your website. Like an org chart for your website, a site map shows the top-down view of the overall site contents.
Stakeholders - The people involved in a project that have a vested interest in or are directly affected by the outcome. At OHSU, this can include managers and executives, as well as students or administrators.
Taxonomy - The practice and science of classification. In the context of a website, a taxonomy creates a consistent naming framework for easy access to and organization of website content.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - The address of a website or an area of the internet. http://www.ohsu.edu is a typical example of a URL. Any page or document on a website will have an associated URL.
"Vanity" Domain - Vanity domains are URLs that resolve to a different address. A vanity domain is similar to a shortcut URL - it creates a shorter or more memorable web address, but refers to the domain rather than a word following the domain. For example, www.ohsuhealth.com is a vanity domain that resolves to www.ohsu.edu/xd/health; www.ohsu.edu/webstrategies is a shortcut URL that resolves to http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/services/technology/webstrategies/.
Wireframes - A basic visual guide used to suggest the layout and placement of fundamental design elements. When completed correctly they will provide a visual reference upon which to structure each page. It is typical to create a wireframe for your Home page, and then a few sample pages within your website.
